Fresh Eggs and Julia Child

I love having a neighbor who has chickens....it means fresh eggs for me! And they are so beautiful! And I know right where they came from and I know they're fresh. And I know the chickens. Even if one does tend to peck at me.

This week I got a dozen fresh eggs and decided to make
Eggs Benedict for dinner. I turned to my c1967 edition of Mastering The Art Of French Cooking for the recipe for Hollandaise Sauce. I had a hungry husband so there was a version using the blender (I actually used my mini-Cuisinart). Leave it to Julia Child to make things clear: this version, using the blender vs creating by hand, "is well within the capabilities of an 8-year old child" so hopefully I could pull this off!




And, viola!.... it was delicious. The entire meal was very easy to make and packed with flavor. I added oven-roasted herbed potatoes and slices of fresh tomato to the meal. In the end, there were two clean plates and we both enjoyed this very much. Try it sometime, breakfast for dinner is a great way to change things up. And don't forget to turn to Julia Child to keep it real.

Light and Delicious Spinach Lasagna

Here's a great recipe for a spinach lasagna that is really delicious and only has 272 calories per serving. I can't remember where I got this, but it's a good recipe for lasagna with not a lot of calories. Enjoy!

Light and Healthy Spinach Lasagna
1 cup onion, minced
1 tsp canola oil
salt/pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups low-fat, 1 percent milk
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 (10-oz) packages frozen, chopped spinach, squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese, grated
8 oz whole milk cottage cheese
1 large egg
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 cup Fontina cheese, shredded

To make the sauce:
Combine onion, oil and 1/8 tsp salt in large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring until softened. Stir in garlic and cook 30 seconds. Stir in 2 3/4 cups milk, bay leaves and nutmeg. Bring to simmer. Whisk in cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup milk. Simmer til thickened. Remove from heat, discard bay leaves. Stir in spinach and1/2 cup parmesan. Season with salt/pepper.

Process cottage cheese, egg and salt with immersion blender till smooth. Set aside.

Pour 1 inch boiling water over noodles to soften, about 5 minutes. Drain and dry with paper towels.


Assembly:
Spread 1/2 cup sauce over bottom of 13X9 baking dish. Lay 3 noodles on top, spread with 3/4 cup more sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan. Layer 3 more noodles, sauce, parmesan, Fontina cheese. Continue creating layers will all noodles and sauce are used, ending with Fontina cheese and parmesan on top.



Cover, bake on middle rack at 425 about 20 minutes. Remove foil and heat broiler. Transfer to upper rack and broil til cheese is melted, about 4 minutes.

'Tis The Season

Fruits and vegetables are pouring in at my house! I've been busy shelling peas and butterbeans, shucking corn, making peach jam, canning beans....and cooking for clients.

Today is an office day, tomorrow another client cook day....so grateful to love my job and be busy.


The vegetables have been so wonderful, especially the corn. We've been eating yellow corn right off the cob, and I got a couple dozen ears of white corn that I cut off the cob. Can't decide which I like better, but they've both been great.


I've had lots of great tomatoes too and made some great salads.






Not to mention the great watermelon and canteloupe we've had. What a great time of year.....my favorite!

My Favorite Time Of Year

Well, it's my favorite time of year except for the heat. I still have not taken the time for a nap on the porch, but I figure if I keep the hammock looking enticing, one day I'll fall into it and have a nice, long nap. It's on my list of things to do.

It's the fresh vegetables that make it my favorite time of year. I've been really enjoying my CSA boxes....I get them from Moore Farms in Alabama.

I usually get their "farmer's pick" box, which means whatever is fresh and ready to pick that week, that's what you get in your box. I like the surprise each week. Everything has been really delicious...fresh lettuces, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, kale, fennel....love it!

The recent box also included kohlrabi and beets that I need to cook this weekend. Kohlrabi I'm not really familiar with and beets are not my favorite. But I'm definitely going to cook both this weekend. I think I'll use some of the kohlrabi raw in a slaw and cook the rest, as an experiment. The beets I plan to roast. Beets are not my favorite but honestly, I've never had fresh beets. So my challenge this weekend is to try these two new-to-me vegetables.
I'm so glad the season is upon us. And I'm trying to stick with my plan of eating what's in season, when things are at their peak. I've also been visiting local weekend farmer's markets and plan to try new ones this summer, branching out from my usual in-town markets. Can't wait!

Lavender Tea Cakes

I have a healthy lavender plant among my herbs and wanted to try cooking with lavender. Most of the recipes I found used the flower, but since I only had one lovely flower, I searched till I found a recipe that used the leaves.

So glad I was persistent because I came upon this lovely recipe for Lavender Tea Cakes!


I have this great mold that a friend gave me a while back (thanks, Lisa!) and I decided to use this instead of the loaf pan the recipe called for. I mixed up the batter ingredients, poured into the mold and baked for about 30 minutes. Then, I doubled the glaze recipe and added it to both the top and bottom of the cakes. I also added more lavender leaves into the glaze.



These cakes were delicious....moist and very flavorful. I'll definitely make these again and really glad I found a use for my lavender plant.


I changed the original recipe a little, so below is my adapted version....enjoy!

Lavender Tea Cakes

For the Cake:
1 cup granulated sugar
5 tbsp softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg plus 1 egg white
1 3/4 cups AP flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
2 tbsp fresh lavender leaves, finely chopped

For the Glaze:
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh lavender leaves

Preheat oven to 350. Spray mold with cooking spray.

Beat sugar, butter and 1/2 tsp vanilla until well blended, about 5 minutes. Add egg and egg white one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in lavender. Pour into molds and bake about 30 minutes.

Remove cakes from oven and spread with glaze. When cakes are cool enough to remove from mold, spread more glaze on top.

And Now, Raspberry Jam

I was at my local Kroger store on Monday afternoon and I guess someone had over-bought raspberries but they were selling them for 50 cents a carton. They are normally about $2.99 each so this was a real bargain. I bought 20 cartons Monday and returned yesterday and bought 20 more. At the normal price of raspberries, making jam would be expensive, almost prohibitive since each 1/2 pint jar of jam uses one carton of raspberries. But at 50 cents each, why not?


Monday afternoon I got to work making jam. I used 8 cartons per batch. I got my lids boiling, crushed the berries, added the pectin then sugar, filled and sealed the jars, and had beautiful jam.



I got about 30 jars of jam and have a few cartons of raspberries left over....today I'm going to figure out something to do with them and take to our monthly book club meeting tomorrow night. Raspberry tart anyone?

Strawberry Jam

It's that time of year again!
Last week I picked four gallons of strawberries and got busy making jam. I also made a Strawberry/Mango version that turned out great and I'm glad I decided to do.



The strawberries were delicious and we ate a lot just as they were. The flavor is very far removed from any you get at the grocery store. But since they are so ripe and just picked, I had to make sure I got them all put away the same day so they wouldn't go bad.

After picking strawberries in the morning, I worked for the rest of the afternoon and got about 35 jars of strawberry jam and 25 jars of strawberry/mango jam. But now that's done for the year and on to the next crop that comes in fresh....peaches in July?

In between I'll be shelling peas and beans and canning green beans. I don't know why it took me so long to learn this, but eating in season is the best way. We ate strawberries for a week but they were delicious because they're in season and just picked. When cantaloupes, watermelons and tomatoes are ready, we'll eat that till we've had our fill. Then we'll wait till next year and do it all again. Such a fun time of the year, when fresh food taste best.